The community has rallied around an ambulance worker who was diagnosed with inoperable cancer just two days after her dream wedding.

The only symptom that grandmother Julie Allen had experienced before the diagnosis was stomach pains and she was offered an ultrasound examination “to be safe”.

After a week the pain had gone and, with another four weeks to wait for her ultrasound appointment at Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, Truro, Julie contemplated cancelling it as she “felt completely fine”.

She said: “After the ultrasound I got a call to say they had found a shadow. I wasn’t worried. I didn’t think it would be anything because I felt so good.

“Then, two days after my wedding, I got the diagnosis – it was pancreatic cancer.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that I would never get to celebrate my first wedding anniversary with Ian. It was hard.

“I thought I wouldn’t be around for Christmases or my grandchildren’s birthdays. So I actually went out and bought four years' worth of cards for them all, in case I wasn’t around.”

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Now she is hoping that, by sharing her story so that others can be more aware, it could help more people catch the illness early. According to the cancer.org website, symptoms of pancreatic cancer can include jaundice, belly or back pain, weight loss or poor appetite, nausea or vomiting, gallbladder and liver enlargement, blood clots, fatty tissue abnormalities and diabetes.

Julie, from Hayle, said: “They haven’t given me a set prognosis but the life expectancy for people with inoperable pancreatic cancer isn’t long at all; it’s about nine months.

“Treliske said that due to where the tumour is, it is inoperable. So I started emailing every expert and professor I could find as I don’t feel like I should be written off.

“I have been up to the Royal Free Hospital in London and spoken to a professor up there who has agreed to operate providing the tumour shrinks. I have contacted every clinical trial going.”

With Julie having to take time off work, covering the costs of travel to London, fees for any trials she gets accepted for and having also been given notice to leave her home, financial strains have taken their toll.